Andreessen Launches VC Fund — Marc Andreessen confirmed that he has launched a venture capital fund with former Opsware executive Ben Horowitz after running an angel fund with him since 2007. — Andreessen, who became synonymous with Internet success programming the browsing software that drove Netscape …

Last.fm not really sharing data with RIAA — Have you torrented the new U2 album? We won't tell, and neither will Last.fm, if those unreleased tracks show up on your listening profile. That's not what TechCrunch is saying, though. Earlier today, they reported that Last.fm turned …

Finally, A Use for Twitter — Sean informed me a few days ago that he had been following “The Real Shaq” on twitter. — “You realize that ‘The Real Shaq’ is probably a 5'4 White, 14 year old emo kid who's getting his jolly's from the attention, right?” I asked him. — “I don't know.

OMG! Did Google Earth find Atlantis? — Google is officially denying widespread Internet rumors that its Google Earth software located the mythical sunken city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa. Either that, or Google is totally trying to hide something.

Ditch Your iPhone — With the first wave of iPhone contracts expiring in June, consumers have plenty of other options. — Imagine a smart phone that worked on only one carrier's network. Now add in the cost of a wallet-draining $20 monthly data plan. The thing has no keyboard …

Why the Smart VCs Are Boarding their Jets — I started my career as a finance reporter covering wonky subjects like banks, bonds and agribusiness. I ended up in Silicon Valley covering tech, because it was the late 1990s, and I was doing what finance reporters are supposed to do: Follow the money.

Data retention bills to benefit copyright holders — If a new federal proposal announced this week requiring Internet providers and Wi-Fi access points to keep records on users for two years becomes law, police would not be the only ones to benefit. — So would individuals …

Pirate Bay: survey says that 80% of our torrents are legal — Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi took the stand today at his trial and attacked the notion that The Pirate Bay is stuffed to the crow's nest with illegal content. Not true, he said; his own survey of 1,000 torrents suggested that most were legal.

Exploring Twitter Ties — While the world has been a-Twitter over the Shorty Awards, Fashion Week and whether advertisers are going to be charged per tweet, some scholars have been digging in. — Bernardo Huberman, Daniel Romero and Fang Wu of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories …

EBay Founder Tweets About an Unusual Lawsuit — Leave it to Twitter, the microblogging service, to persuade a stubbornly private billionaire to chronicle his daily activities in short, 140-character bursts. — That is what has happened to Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder, philanthropist and start-up investor.

Twitter slowly turning back on the SMS spigot — Back in November of last year, Canadian Twitter users were outraged when the service had to end its support for inbound SMS (text messages) updates due to rising costs. Today brings good news for some of these users: SMS support is back if you happen to be a Bell Mobility subscriber.

Can 4chan Turn 300 Million Pageviews Into A Business? — (This interview was originally published on Fimoculous) — Like many successful internet phenomena, 4chan is a shockingly simple idea: an online bulletin board where anyone can post pictures. — This simplicity is deceptive.

Who's More Dumb: Facebook or its Users? — Commentary: Basing your communication with users on the idea that you're smart and your customers are dumb will lead to failure every time. — Facebook quietly changed its terms of service agreement (TOS) recently.

California's video game law ruled unconstitutional — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled Friday that a California law restricting the sales and rental of violent video games to minors and imposing labeling requirements is too restrictive and violates free speech guarantees.

250 DVDs in a Quarter-Sized Device — Coming Soon? — A new technique developed by scientists at UC Berkeley and University of Massachusetts Amherst may drastically increase the ability of devices to store things. — Cal officials called the technique “innovative and easily implemented,” on Thursday.

Untitled Document Syndrome — 1. — Scenario: you have an idea for something, start a new document in an appropriate app, and then work for hours before realizing you haven't yet saved the document? Typically, it's a chuckle — ha, guess I should save this thing.

Ubuntu's next release: Karmic Koala — From the ‘wacky names r us’ files: — From the great minds that brought us the Hoary Hedgehog, Intrepid Ibex,Dapper Drake and Jaunty Jackalope comes the next wacky name for an Ubuntu Linux release: Karmic Koala. — Ubuntu has always had wacky names and Karmic Koala continues the tradition.

Microsoft's workforce grew in January ... before layoffs — Microsoft's headcount grew during the month of January — that is before layoffs were factored in. The company employed 95,943 employees worldwide in January, meaning it added a net total of 115 workers when compared to December, according to figures released today.